If Saurav Ganguly was pegged on his leg stump to check his free scoring on the off side by the Sri Lankans, Ajay Jadeja's trade mark off-glance to the fast bowlers was cut off by strategically placed square gully and short square-point fielders by Pakistan. Jadeja was virtually scoreless in that region which he used earlier to rotate strike.

Computer games: Sadly, Indian cricketing legends have not woken up to the benefits of planning and strategy. They mocked a laptop computer-carrying Bob Woolmer when he came to India as the South African coach andplotted moves on his gizmo.

Of course, devising strategy is nothing new to international cricket. England skipper Douglas Jardine came up with the infamous bodyline bowling attack to alter Don Bradman's awesome scoring pattern. Since then, teams have generally worked out some sort of strategy without going into micro level. It was the advent of computer whiz-kids at NBA sidelines and at baseball dug outs that really revolutionised the pattern of these games in America.

The constant in-puts of the opponents' strength and weakness and their scoring patterns on a given day were fed to the coach, who in turn passed it on to the players. Ultimately, these in-puts helped in the victories, even by the slenderest of margins. How it works in cricket: The scoring pattern of every opponent is broken down, say in the last 10 innings. The bowlers are shown tapes of every opposition batsman and made aware of his minus and plus points. Thus, even before a batsman comes in to bat, the bowler knows where not to bowl tohim, the field to employ, the line and length to adopt against the particular batsman.

This is very crucial, especially in limited overs cricket. An unprepared bowler would take two to three overs to size up a batsman, by which time he could have rattled up a few runs or even boundaries. And in matches where the victory margin is minimal, an unplanned approach could prove a disaster.Likewise, every opposition bowler is minutely studied on tape. His temperament and reaction in various situations is noted. If his plus point is the slower delivery, then his method of delivering it, his action at that time; if the slower one is a reaction to a boundary hit, etc., is observed. Responses are then planned.

For example, the New Zealanders recently had sized up Venkatesh Prasad's slower deliveries. They played him only off the backfoot and square of the wicket. They never tried to hit his slower ones straight down the field.Similarly, the fielders and wicket-keeper are studied and their plus points and weaknessestaken note of. Forewarned is forearmed is the line of thinking.

Inputs: Thus, at every match, there are four vital in-puts: 1. The Coach's in-put; 2. The captain's in-put; 3. The player's in-put; 4. Match situation.The first three are sought to be in absolute sync with each other. No communication gap is permitted. A bowler, batsman or fielder knows exactly what the captain and coach want in each situation. They all work in unison towards that plan. The captain will deal with the unknown the changing match situation.

Unfortunately, the Indian coach and skipper's in-puts beyond ``bat well, field well and bowl well'' does not seem apparent from the outside. Else, how does one explain the inability of the Indian batsmen (from Tendulkar to Prasad) to read Saqlain Mushtaq's floater or his straighter ones.The fact that wicket-keeper Moin Khan has not been wrong-footed even once by the bowler is proof that he can be read. Yet, not a single batsman, Tendulkar included, has picked him unerringly.

Further proofthat there is no planning is reflected in the chasing of Pakistan's total of 278 on Wednesday. India had a net run-rate of +1.6 at the start of the match as against Sri Lanka's -0.89. In a three-cornered race where the top two would clash in the final, India needed to protect that net run-rate advantage of theirs.

Once they realised that victory was beyond them at Jaipur, the team should have tried to hang on and make at least 200 runs which would have given India a positive net run-rate of .02.

Instead, by throwing away the wickets and getting all out for 135, the NRR is now a lowly -0.63. And there is every danger that a loss to Sri Lanka could well knock India out of the triangular in their own backyard!World cup planning: Perhaps, all is not lost for the ultimate tourney, the World Cup. Now that most countries have named their World Cup squad, the Indian coach and captain must get hold of tapes of their opponents and work out strategy.

Some homework is necessary if they want India to be a force toreckon with in the tournament. The fact that seven of the 12 nations taking part are in the vicinity of the Indian sub-continent during March-April (Zimbabwe, Kenya, Bangladesh in Dhaka; India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in India and England in Sharjah) is an excellent opportunity to make an exhaustive study of their players and start planning.

Forget a laptop. Just a paper and pen would do. But are the Board and the cricket coach up to it?